MSOMERSET — Up to $2 million will be available to Somerset to develop clean-energy projects through state Department of Energy Resources funding, local legislators announced.

The funds are related to the planned closure of Brayton Point Power Station and the former Montaup power plant's closure in 2010. Both fossil-fuel plants have been powered mostly by coal.

Unlike the $3 million in open-ended funds the DOER issued to Somerset on Jan. 31 to offset diminished power plant tax revenues, these funds are tied to clean energy, according to a press release state officials issued.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the town of Somerset to ensure that these funds will help the community move forward with renewable energy projects,” DOER Commissioner Mark Sylvia said.

The funds for active and decommissioned coal-fired power plants are available as a result of a Feb. 18 settlement with the Conservation Law Foundation and Footprint Power in concert with the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, officials said.

The EEA office is ensuring a total of $6 million to three eligible communities — Somerset, Salem and Holyoke — where coal- and oil-fired plants are being shut down or replaced, officials said.

The 12-page settlement addresses requirements under the 2008 state Globe Warming Solutions Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from the 1990s over the next four decades.

“The funding available for communities hosting current or decommissioned coal plants will be directed for use on a renewable energy project for municipalities’ energy use,” according to the release from state officials.

It says awarded funds could be used for “planning, implementation and building” such projects in each town and the municipalities must “wholly own” projects that can be built by third parties.

Days after the settlement with the Law Foundation, EEA Secretary Richard Sullivan announced issuance of siting permits to allow New Jersey developer Footprint Power to replace Salem Harbor with an $800 million, 692-megawatt natural-gas-fired power plant at the same site — less than half the size of Brayton Point.

Dominion Energy, the Virginia company that sold Brayton Point last year, sold Salem Harbor to Footprint Power in 2012.

In a joint statement, state Sen. Michael Rodrigues, D-Westport, and Rep. Patricia Haddad, D-Somerset, praised the available funding.

“These funds will go to further ensure that Somerset has sufficient and appropriate funding to move ahead during this difficult transition project,” Haddad said.

Brayton Point tax payments that averaged $12 million to $13 million a year dropped to $7 million this year and will dip to $5.5 million in fiscal 2015 and $4.25 million in fiscal 2016 under a recent PILOT agreement with the town.

At the same time, Haddad noted the differences from the recent $3 million Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative payment. She compared this to the settlement funding forged by a court consent decree over Dominion last summer designed to help Somerset and Fall River, among other communities.

Page 2 of 2 - “It’s not just, ‘Here’s the money and do whatever you want with it,’” Haddad said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I’m looking at it as renewable energy projects that will save the town energy costs.”

She expected the state to set stringent standards for eligible energy projects.

Haddad remained optimistic that Somerset’s $3 million in RGGI funding could see another round when the House is scheduled to vote on its budget in one week. But, she said, “This is totally, totally separate. This has nothing to do with tax relief.”

“While the news of Brayton Point closing in 2017 has been unsettling for Somerset, I am pleased with the funding and assistance that the state has been able to provide,” read the statement from Rodrigues.

Rodrigues later said the funds are now available, and he expected the process for applying for them through the EEA to be made known very soon to town officials.